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I’m somewhat late on this one as I’ve been laid low with a rather unpleasant flu-like lurgy.
A quick catch-up on a couple of pieces from my last post.
Here is the Barbarian from the OS Miniatures Company. This was a challenge that I undertook to have him painted before Christmas. Nobody else took up the challenge which was a pity.
This was from Warmonger Miniatures, again painted up for Christmas.
There is one more figure which was supposed to be my last figure of 2017, but the lurgy stopped that. I’ll post when it is finished.
Old age seems to have telescoped the year. Blink and I’ll miss it.
The first three months were taken up with making the Rogue Stars display board. April/May I did some landscaping in the garden converting a be-shrubbed steep slope into a flat grassy terrace.
June/July/August were at Electric Love. I had a great time and it gave me enough money to buy my own small laser cutter.
The rest of the year seemed to evaporate, lttle jobs around the house and making bits with my loot from the summer.
Here is a group shot of what I finished painting. There is a lot more half finished and the 2018 goal is to finish all the half started jobs from the past few years, the Heresy Dragon being the main target, get all that out of the way so I have a clean slate. Then one project at a time, start it and finish it.
Yeah right!Product of the Year 2017
On reflection it has to be the laser cutter. It’s small and slow but it has enabled me to prototype ideas and to make stuff on the fly. Christmas cards, party invites, party bag goodies, cake icing molds and gift tags just to name a few bits and bobs.Heroes and Zeroes
Firstly the Heroes.
At the top of the list are the Facebook friends; EvH, DW, SR, ME and CF. They have been a constant source (sauce?) of inspiration, advice and encouragement. I might actually meet some of them in RL oneday.
Then comes the figure manufacturers who have gifted me with lovely toys this last year.
Ramshackle Gameshttp://shop.ramshacklegames.co.uk/index.php
The OS Miniatures Companyhttps://www.facebook.com/OldSchoolMinis1985/
Avatars of Warhttp://www.avatars-of-war.com/eng/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59&Itemid=51
Warmonger Miniatureshttps://www.warmongerminiatures.com/
Finally Revolution Eventshttps://www.revolutionevent.com/
For fun, education and loot.
Now to the Zeroes
Wayland Games for lengthy delays, poor communication and their unwillingness (or inability) to combine orders.
TNT for their lack of customer service and making life just that little bit harder.
Games Workshop for tantalising me with the new rules for 40K, promises of fewer books and then conveniently forgetting about all that.
The new plastics are beautiful though.

Earlier this week we took a trip across the border (luckily nobody mentioned the war) to visit the Hans-Peter Porsche Traumwerk. A new toy museum in Bavaria.
Link here http://www.hanspeterporsche.com/
This was a really well laid out and beautifully curated museum, and as is typical of Porsche no expense was spared.

An unusual camouflage scheme which I imagine would be hard to do in real life

The lighting was a bit too subdued to take proper photographs which was a pity, but you have to also understand that they are also conserving the exhibits. Upstairs was a large collection of tin toys. This description does the displays somewhat of a disservice as the exhibits covered circuses, zoos, ships, a small amount of military, fire engines and of course trains. Lots of them.
There was a gallery looking down to the main attraction, a vast train layout.
Again this is an understatement. There were wall projections of clouds and a lighting sequence that cycled between day and night. Clouds passed over the mountains and an immersive ambient soundscape.
I’m not really a train person, but I wouldn’t mind tapping into that market, so the trains weren’t all that exciting. But the scenery was to die for.
Really well done, again it was attention to detail. You would look into the windows of a house and see that it was fully furnished.
Well worth a visit, but bring sandwiches as the restaurant was expensive (I’ve never had a meal that has been up to scratch in Germany) and the kids adventure playground was very well designed.
So how is the Dragon going I hear you ask.
Well…..
I am going to stick with the colour scheme, but I have been prevaricating. Again.
Continuing the Undead theme and the Bob Olley addiction.
So now I have a command group.
And this chap, sculpted by Justin Coutange from the Oldhammer community.
This was another entry to the Warhammer Salzburg “Spooky” painting contest. I finished him with a couple of days to spare, but I didn’t get into town to submit him.
Late news.
The figure that I did enter came second, so not too bad.
And finally this figure from Grimskull Miniatures. A bit T&A but I thought she would go nicely with my Raging Heroes Not DKK army.
So there you have it. Time to tidy the desk and knuckle down with the dragon.
Honest!

I decided to strike while the iron was hot and try airbrushing the wings. The set up for airbrushing isn’t quite right yet, but a few small tweaks should get it there. More practice is required. Firstly getting the paint to the right consistancy and secondly getting the airflow/needle balance right.

And patience. Take time and build up the paint slowly otherwise it runs.

The leaves on the trees are changing from green to orange. The mountains have had their first snow. Our winter wood has been delivered and safely stored.
And now I have primed the Dragon. So far I have only used a single action airbrush. Now it’s time to up my game and break out the double-action airbrush for the wings.

I haven’t painted for four months.
There has been the Puppet’s War Robot sat on my desk half done for all this time and I think I have been using it as an excuse. So I have packed it away and cleaned the desk away of any other distractions.

I’m going to have a permanent airbrush set-up as before I had been packing it away after every use which I found that it put me off using it.
Part of my equipment is a single action airbrush which was being used for primer and for varnishing. I wanted a double action but the expense put me off. I use Facebook, probably too much, and one of the groups I subscribe to is the “Artblock Social” for people who went to Camborne Tech in the 80’s. The good old days before computers when there was Letraset, Cow-Gum, Type Scales, Grant Projectors, Magic Markers and of course Airbrushes. Anyway, earlier this year was a chat about Type Scales, how totally useless they are these days and why do we still have them lurking in the bottom of our drawers. So this got me thinking, and I posted that if any of the Technical Illustrators had an old one kicking about I’d gladly take it off their hands. I got a message back from one of the guys that he used to be a demonstrator and had a spare airbrush in his garage. He sent it to me and I was half expecting something quite well worn, not that I wouldn’t be grateful. When I opened the parcel I had quite a surprise, a brand new boxed DeVilbiss Aerograph Sprite!
On to the Dragon. I’d met Andy Foster from Heresy earlier this year at Salute and I had promised that this year I would be painting it. It appears that most of the dragons are boxed up on a shelf somewhere.
The next question was what colour? Red? Or green? These are your two classic colour schemes which most painters seem to follow. I was undecided. That was until last week when I had a trip to the zoo with my Boys.
Then I came across this and had my mind made up.
This is a Caiman crocodile and I was very taken by the orange and grey markings.
I think another trip to the zoo may be in order.